Origin

Most books say that mayonnaise comes via French mahonnais from Port Mahon, the capital of Minorca, which was taken by the French in 1756. The first reference to mayonnaise anywhere is not found until 1804, though, when the success was hardly fresh in the French mind, and the spelling was with -y- rather than -h- from the beginning. The chef M. A. Carême ( 1784–1833), explained the word as from French manier ‘to handle’ referring to the method of preparation. It could also be a corruption of French bayonnaise, meaning ‘from the town of Bayonne’.